fear

3 Actions That Help You Lead Your Engineering Team Despite Fear

April 19, 2017 By Christian Knutson, PE, PgMP, PMP

Fear Here’s a topic not often discussed in the offices of the majority of leaders: FEAR. We’ll talk about risk, or problem’s, or setbacks. But never fear. Why is that? Probably because the word “fear” comes with a lot of baggage. Fear isn’t something that’s talked about openly, ever. It’s a sign of weakness or lack of capability.

The truth is, fear is present whether we want to admit openly or not. Leaders have fears, team members have fear, even senior leaders and clients have fears. Fear of failure, fear of looking bad, fear of missing something important that sets a project on its rear…the list goes on. Some of these fears are project or mission related, some are personal.

Regardless, fear still exists. Am I wrong?

Here’s an example:

TECC 119: An Engineer Overcomes her Fear of Public Speaking in One Year

June 14, 2016 By Anthony Fasano

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Fear In this episode, I talk about Lu Ding, PE, PTOE, an Engineer who overcame her fear of public speaking in one year. I specifically discuss her ECSx talk at the Engineering Career Summit in New Orleans this past May. You will also here Lu’s talk in this episode and you can watch it at the bottom of this post.

Engineering Success quotes:

Here are the key points from the episode:

How To Deal With The Stresses and Anxieties of Being An Engineer

October 3, 2010 By Anthony Fasano

Stanley Popovich

Featured Guest Blogger: Stanley Popovich
Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods” – an easy to read book that presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. For additional information go to: http://www.managingfear.com/

Stress and anxiety are very common among engineers. This article includes a list of techniques that engineers can use to help manage their daily stresses and anxieties.

At times, we get stressed when many things happens all at once. When this happens, take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get your mind off of the problem. Take a walk, listen to some music, read the newspaper or do an activity that will give you a fresh perspective on things.

When faced with a current or upcoming task in your career that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, divide the task into a series of smaller steps and then complete each of the smaller tasks one at a time. Dealing with smaller tasks will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success. [Read more…] about How To Deal With The Stresses and Anxieties of Being An Engineer